System and Method for Biometric Authentication in Connection with Camera Equipped Devices

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates generally to the use of biometric technology for authentication and identification, and more particularly to non-contact based solutions for authenticating and identifying users, via computers, such as mobile devices, to selectively permit or deny access to various resources. In the present invention authentication and/or identification is performed using an image or a set of images of an individual&#39;s palm through a process involving the following key steps: (1) detecting the palm area using local classifiers; (2) extracting features from the region(s) of interest; and (3) computing the matching score against user models stored in a database, which can be augmented dynamically through a learning process.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application relies on, and claims the benefit of the filing date ofU.S. provisional patent application No. 61/696,820, filed 5 Sep. 2012,the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to the use of biometrictechnology for authentication and identification, and more particularlyto non-contact based solutions for authenticating and identifying users,via computers, such as mobile devices, to selectively permit or denyaccess to various resources. In the present invention authenticationand/or identification is performed using an image or a set of images ofan individual's palm through a process involving the following keysteps: (1) detecting the palm area using local classifiers; (2)extracting features from the region(s) of interest; and (3) computingthe matching score against user models stored in a database, which canbe augmented dynamically through a learning process.

2. Discussion of Related Art

Mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and notebooks, have becomewidely adopted and used by many people on a daily basis. These deviceshave become more and more powerful and as developers create more andmore applications and services that run on them, they become even moreentrenched in our daily lives. These mobile devices not only provide apowerful computing platform in their own right but they also provideconnectivity to a practically unlimited set of services, applicationsand data available on remote platforms which are typically accessed viaa wireless link to a cell site and then backhauled to the internetbackbone. In addition to accessing these remote platforms, mobiledevices also have the ability to connect to other mobile devices throughshort and long range wireless connections.

Perhaps most importantly, the ever increasing penetration of thesedevices combined with the ongoing reduction in costs associated withcomponent parts in these devices, has resulted in the devices becomingavailable with greater capabilities while still remaining affordable formany users. For example, as a result of the reduction in costs ofcomponent parts and the development of more powerful software, asubstantial number of smartphones now include powerful cameras, whichcan take extraordinarily detailed photos on the order of eightmegapixels or more.

One important issue that arises in the context of mobile devices andtheir widespread use in connection with so much functionality and theirneed to interact with so many different resources is the need to controlaccess to each of these resources so that only those individuals ordevices that should be authorized to access the applicable resources areactually able to do so. In the typical case, resource access iscontrolled through the input of text/numerical strings, such as user IDsand passwords. For example, a smartphone user may be required to enter afour digit code before he is permitted to access any functionality onthe device. In addition, each local application or other resource on thedevice might require the user to enter one or more text/numericalstrings prior to obtaining access to the resource. In this case, thecorrect data (user ID, password, etc.) may be stored in the memory ofthe device. Alternatively, for access to resources (applications, data,communication capabilities, etc.) that are located remotely from thedevice, the user and/or the device might be required to transmit acorrect set of text/numerical strings to the remote resource which, inturn, verifies that the transmitted data matches the correct data beforepermitting access to the resource.

As one might imagine, for a typical smartphone user, for example, thereare a number of drawbacks with the foregoing techniques forauthentication and identification. For one, the need to remember userIDs and passwords for so many different applications, services, andother resources, each having their own requirements for how those IDsand passwords must be constructed, can be quite daunting and users oftenforget their IDs and passwords for resources that they do not access ona frequent basis. Another disadvantage is that there are securityconcerns with using textual/numeric strings to control access toresources. There are, for example, powerful software programs that canbe used to hack these strings to gain unauthorized access to resources.

Also, the typical contact-based method of a user using his or herfingers to enter passwords and user IDs on the smartphone screen lendsitself to security risks. Experienced hackers are often able to “lift”the fingerprint pattern from the screen based on the oil residue left bythe finger to gain unauthorized access. This is particularly true in thecontext of entering a short numerical string such as a four digit numberto unlock the device. Once the device is unlocked, many of the resourceson the device might not even be secured leading to serious securityrisks.

One solution that has been targeted to eliminate or reduce the drawbacksdiscussed above involves the use of biometric technology to controlaccess to resources available via mobile devices. While these solutionshave, in some cases, eliminated some of the drawbacks discussed above,they still suffer from a number of disadvantages. For example, somecontact-based solutions call for a user to place his or her finger onthe device sensor, which has the ability to capture the user'sfingerprint, which is then matched against local or remotely locatedfingerprint data to determine if there is a match sufficient to allowthe user or the device to access one or more resources. In this case, asreferenced above, a fingerprint can be lifted from the device sensor bya hacker and used to gain unauthorized access to one or more resourcesat a later time utilizing that appropriated fingerprint. These solutionsalso typically suffer from the drawback that the time to perform theprocessing necessary to determine if the fingerprint is a match can beunacceptable in the context of a busy user trying to gain access to manydifferent resources on the device during the course of a typical day.

There are additional health issues associated with contact-based methodsinvolving transmittal of germs, viruses, or other biological hazards,particularly in the case of shared devices between users. As is known inthe art, an individual's fingertips, and an individual's hands moregenerally, are often one of the primary mediums for transferring germs,viruses, or other biological hazards between people. In the case ofindividual devices being shared amongst multiple people, contact-basedmethods of authentication and identification in which a user types anidentifying string with his or her fingertips, or authenticates oridentifies himself or herself through contact-based biometric methods,such as fingerprint or palm print recognition, among others, create riskof transferring said biological hazards via the shared contact medium.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is thus an object of the invention to provide a non-contact basedbiometric system and methodology that supports accurate, secure, andrapid authentication and/or identification of users and devices toprovide selective access to resources accessible through camera-equippeddevices.

In one embodiment of the present invention, users of suchcamera-equipped devices (hereinafter referred to at times as“smartphones” for convenience, although the devices are to be understoodas including all devices with a camera capability, including both mobiledevices and stationary devices, such as desktop computers) who arerequired to identify or authenticate themselves as a condition ofobtaining access to one or more resources take one or a series of photosof their palm or both palms using the smartphone camera. The system ofthe present invention then employs computer vision technology to analyzethe palm print image and either verify that the palm print signaturematches the user's model in a database (user authentication) or find thematching user model among many models in a database (useridentification).

Further features and aspects of the present invention will becomeapparent from the following detailed description of exemplaryembodiments in connection with reference to the attached figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram depicting the major components of the system of thepresent invention in a preferred embodiment thereof;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram, which is useful in illustrating themethodology of the present invention in a preferred embodiment thereof;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the secure connectivity between amobile device and one or more remote servers according to a preferredembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the key steps in authenticating auser or device according to the present invention in a preferredembodiment thereof; and

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the key steps in identifying a useror device according to the present invention in a preferred embodimentthereof.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to various exemplary embodiments ofthe invention. It is to be understood that the following discussion ofexemplary embodiments is not intended as a limitation on the invention,as broadly disclosed herein. Rather, the following discussion isprovided to give the reader a more detailed understanding of certainaspects and features of the invention.

Before embodiments of the present invention are described in detail, itis to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purposeof describing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to belimiting. Unless defined otherwise, all technical terms used herein havethe same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in theart to which the term belongs. Although any methods and materialssimilar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in thepractice of the present invention, the preferred methods and materialsare now described. All publications mentioned herein are incorporatedherein by reference to disclose and describe the methods and/ormaterials in connection with which the publications are cited. Thepresent disclosure is controlling to the extent it conflicts with anyincorporated publication.

As used herein and in the appended claims, the singular forms “a”, “an”,and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictatesotherwise. Thus, for example, reference to “a palm” includes a singlepalm or both palms of an individual and reference to “an image” includesreference to one or more images. Furthermore, the use of terms that canbe described using equivalent terms include the use of those equivalentterms. Thus, for example, the use of the term “camera” is to beunderstood to include any device capable of obtaining an image of anobject. As another example, and as mentioned above, the term“smartphone” includes all devices with a camera capability.

A description of the present invention in preferred embodiments thereof,now follows. With reference to FIG. 1, a discussion of the keycomponents of the system of the present invention now follows as well asthe context in which each of these components interact with one anotherto derive the advantages of the present invention. Device 100 can be anydevice that contains a camera capable of taking high qualityphotographs. Preferably, the camera of Device 100 also contains a flashelement capable of being selectively and rapidly activated anddeactivated for illuminating the area to be photographed. Examples ofsuch Devices 100 include smartphones, tablet computers, notebooks, andany other device that can be carried by a user and that provides acomputing platform that allows for the functionality of the presentinvention to be operative, as well as desktop computers or a variety ofstationary embedded devices. Examples of such stationary embeddeddevices include camera equipment fixed to facility entryways or otherstrategic locations providing secure access to physical spaces or otherresources, or camera equipment fixed to strategic locations for suchpurposes as time and attendance protocols, as well as otherapplications. Although not required, Device 100 can also contain variousother features, such as a viewing screen (which may also be atouchscreen), a keypad, an accelerometer, GPS capabilities, storagecapacity, and a central processing unit (CPU).

Device 100 includes at least one Camera 105, which is preferably capableof producing high quality photographs of, for example, two megapixels ormore, such as four megapixels, six megapixels, or eight megapixels.Camera Data Processor 110 receives the image data from Camera 105 andprocesses it as known in the art to create pixel data representative ofthe photograph, which may be used in various ways, including for thepurposes outlined in connection with the present invention as nowdescribed. The data from Camera Data Processor 110 is fed to Region ofInterest Detector 115, which serves to locate the area of the palmwithin the broader image, and delineate the area with a high level ofprecision and consistency, such as to provide masks of the palm area ofsubstantially the same shape and position on the palm through a varietyof independent images with different lighting conditions andorientations of the palm to the camera.

In one embodiment of Region of Interest Detector 115, the region ofinterest is detected using sliding window-based local classifiers tolabel palm and non-palm pixels by the classification scores, followed bya segmentation step to group neighboring palm pixels into connectedcomponents in the input image. A high level of accuracy and robustnessto image noise can be achieved because a significant number ofdiscriminative local features are learned from a large collection ofexemplar images to capture the stable characteristics of the palmappearance to form strong classifiers. As a result, the trained detectorcan precisely locate and delineate the region(s) of interest on inputimages taken free-form with various hand orientations and lightingconditions.

In one embodiment of Region of Interest Detector 115, local classifiersbased on Haar Wavelets and AdaBoost (reference 1) are used to detect theregion of interest in the palm area of a user's hand. In anotherembodiment of Region of Interest Detector 115, local classifiers basedon support vector machines (reference 2) are used to detect the regionof interest in the palm area of a user's hand. In another embodiment ofRegion of Interest Detector 115, a convolutional neural network is usedto detect the region of interest in the palm area of a user's hand, suchas the ones described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,067,164 and 5,058,179, and in(references 3 and 4).

Region of Interest Detector 115 then feeds the image data, including thepalm area mask, to Conversion Processor 120, which serves to extract aSignature 125 from image patches representing the characteristicfeatures of the individual's palm area that can be used to distinguishthe individual from another user, wherein said patches are smallsampling windows within the palm area mask.

In one embodiment, Signature 125 is a vector computed as follows. First,a histogram of edge orientations in a number of well-chosen regions inthe image is computed. This may be performed using one of the well-knownmethods of computer vision for extracting local image descriptors, suchas Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) (see, for example, reference5), Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) (see, for example, reference6), and other references known in the art. Second, each orientationhistogram is compared with a number of prototypes that have beencomputed from training data, for example using the well-known K-meansclustering algorithm. Finally, the signature vector is formed such thatcomponent k of the vector corresponds to the k-th prototypeaforementioned. Component k contains the number of regions for which thehistogram was closer to prototype k than to all other prototypes. Thissequence of operations is known in the literature as a “Bag of Features”representation (see reference 7, for example). It should be apparentfrom the current teachings that in another embodiment of the presentinvention, multiple Bags of Features can be used to preserve thegeometric relationship between local regions.

Signature 125 is then fed to Authentication and Identification Engine(AID Engine) 130, which serves to implement many of the key processes ofthe present invention as hereinafter described. AID Engine 130communicates with Database of User Models 135, if present, to store alocal copy of a user model. Thus, in the case of applications orservices that reside locally on Device 100 and do not require externalcommunication with, for example, remote servers or remote devices, auser signature resulting from palm print images taken by Camera 105 maybe compared against known user model(s), stored in Database of UserModels 135 for authentication or identification. The user models arestatistical models computed from a collection of an individual's palmimages, with the signatures derived from those images defining themodel. In one embodiment, the user model consists of a so-calledGaussian density model of the signatures computed from the user'sreference images. Given the signature of query image S, the user modelis used to compute a matching score. The signature is considered to bematched to the user model if the matching score

$R = {\sum\limits_{i}^{\;}\; \frac{\left( {{Si} - {Mi}} \right)^{2}}{{Vi} + u}}$

where Mi and Vi are the mean and variance of the i-th component of thesignature vectors of all the reference images of the given user, and uis a small constant. The signature is considered to be matched to theuser model if the matching score R is larger than a pre-selectedthreshold for this user model. The Authentication and IdentificationEngine 130, Model Building Engine 155, and Database of User Models 135form an AID Unit 160.

Signature 125 is also fed to Model Building Engine 155 to initialize theuser model during the first time of user enrollment or selectivelyincorporate the information of the signature to refine the user modelstored in Database of User Models 135 if the model is already present.In one embodiment of the present invention, Model Building Engine 155updates the aforementioned means and variances Mi and Vi using thesignature extracted from new images of the user.

Device 100 also preferably contains a Remote Resource Interface 145,which communicates with AID Engine 130. Remote Resource Interface 145serves as the interface between the authentication and identificationfunctionalities implemented on Device 100 and those same functionalitiesas they occur on external/remote resources, such as remote servers andremote devices. Thus, for example, Remote Resource Interface 145interacts with applications resident on remote servers to coordinateauthentication or identification as required by the remote applications.This can include managing and responding to requests by externalresources for authentication or identification of a user operatingDevice 100 or for authentication or identification of Device 100 itself.

Remote Resource Interface 145 can communicate with Network Interface 150to transmit and receive data in connection with authentication andidentification activities. Various wireless communication protocols canbe used, including radio frequency as well as others, including andwithout limitation, Bluetooth and other near field communicationstechnologies. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, thedata communicated back and forth from Device 100 over the open wirelesslink is secured as is known in the art by means of, for example,encryption and/or other methodologies, which reduce or eliminate thepossibility that user data and other data associated with theauthentication and identification methodologies of the present inventioncan be intercepted by unauthorized parties. Network Interface 150typically comprises a radio frequency transceiver module as is known inthe art and permits Device 100 to communicate via wireless link withWireless Network 400. Wireless Network 400, in turn, typically backhaulsthe data that is transmitted by or to be received by Device 100 to DataNetwork 500, again as is known in the art.

By way of example only, the present invention permits users of Device100 or Device 100 itself to be authenticated or identified by remoteservers and applications and other resources residing on remote servers.As illustrated in FIG. 1, Remote Server 200 can communicate with Device100 via the communication path discussed above. In this manner and ascontrolled by Remote Resource Interface 145 residing on Device 100, AIDUnit 205 residing on Remote Server 200 can request and receiveauthentication and identification data from Device 100 for comparisonwith known and validated user models residing on or accessible by RemoteServer 200 as more fully described below. This authentication andidentification capability provides for selective access to one or moreApplications 210, Data 215, and other resources residing on RemoteServer 200. The same capability may also provide for selective access toLocal Resources 140, including applications, data, and/or otherresources residing on Device 100, as well as cases where such localresources seek access to data or other resources that are remote toDevice 100.

In another embodiment of the present invention, communication asdiscussed above can occur between Device 100 and one or more RemoteDevices 300. Remote Devices 300 can be the same or different devicetypes as Device 100 and authentication/identification functionalityaccording to the teachings of the present invention can occur both ways.In other words, Device 100 can respond to authentication/identificationrequests from Remote Device 300 in order to access, for example, one ormore Applications 310 and/or Data 315 residing on Remote Device 300 viathe AID Unit 305 on Remote Device 300. But also, Remote Device 300 canreceive and respond to authentication and identification requestsinitiated by Device 100 in order for Remote Device 300 (or a useroperating it) to access resources resident on Device 100. In some casesboth Device 100 and Remote Device 300 will require authentication and/oridentification of the other before resources are shared. This mightoccur, for example, in the context of a desired secure communicationbetween users of Device 100 and Remote Device 300.

Turning now to FIG. 2, the methodology of user/device authenticationand/or identification according to a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention is now described. By way of initial discussion, the differencebetween authentication and identification in the context of theteachings of the present invention is first described.

In the case of authentication, the user presents an identity in the formof a user ID or user name and the system of the present inventionverifies that the user is indeed who he or she claims to be. The systemthen compares the signature derived from an image or images of theuser's palm with the corresponding model in the database of user models.If they match, the user is authenticated. If they do not match, the useris rejected.

The flowchart for user authentication according to the teachings of thepresent invention, in a preferred embodiment, is shown in FIG. 4. As afirst step, the user at Device 100 may enter his or her name or otheridentifying information into Device 100, or the user's identity mayalready be pre-loaded in Device 100. Separately, the user takes apicture or set of pictures of the palm of his or her hand or hands usingCamera 105 of Device 100. Next, Camera Data Processor 110 sends the rawpixel data to Region of Interest Detector 115 which determines the palmarea within the image. The masked palm area from Region of InterestDetector 115 is fed to Conversion Processor 120, which derives theunique signature of the user. This conversion function can alternativelybe processed on a remote resource or partially on a remote resource andpartially on Device 100. With no direct contact between the imaged palmarea and Device 100, using high-resolution images of the hand, takenfree-form and in any orientation by the end user without any specialhardware beyond a common digital camera, the system of the presentinvention identifies the individual using a multi-step software solutioninvolving feature extraction, feature processing into user signatures,and the matching of user signatures to stored user signatures or usermodels in which: (i) a single or multiple regions of interest aredetected and segmented out from the input image to remove extraneouspixel data and isolate the palm area; (ii) a number of high dimensionalsparse feature vectors are extracted from the image (see, for example,reference 8); (iii) a single signature for each image is created in aprocess in which nearby feature vectors are pooled into a more compactand robust image representation; and (iv) multiple image signatures arecombined into an identity model for each individual user.

Authentication and Identification Engine 130 then looks up the user'smodel (based on the user identifying data previously presented) in theDatabase of User Models 135. At this point, if the derived usersignature matches the stored user model, then the user is authenticatedand is permitted access to the desired resource or set of resources.Alternatively, if the user signature and model do not match, then theuser is denied access to the desired resource or set of resources. Theforegoing functionality regarding look up and matching may alternativelybe performed remotely to Device 100.

In case of identification, the user presents only a palm print image orset of images, and Authentication and Identification Engine 130 comparesthe signature derived from the palm print image or images with allmodels or a subset of models in the Database of User Models 135. If amatch is found then the user is identified. If no match is found, theuser is unknown.

The flowchart for user identification is shown in FIG. 5. In this case,as in the case of authentication, the user takes a picture or set ofpictures of the palm of his or her hand. This data is again processedinto pixel form by Camera Data Processor 110 and sent to Region ofInterest Detector 115 to determine the palm area within the image. Themasked palm area from Region of Interest Detector 115 is fed toConversion Processor 120, which derives the unique signature of the userand then AID Engine 130 compares the derived signature with all modelsor a subset of models stored in the Database of User Models 135. Theabove referenced conversion and comparison functions could alternativelybe processed on a remote resource or partially on a remote resource andpartially on Device 100. In any event, if a match is found, then theuser is identified and may be granted access to a resource or set ofresources. If no match is found, then the user can not be identified andaccess to a desired resource or set of resources will not be granted.

Which mode (authentication or identification) is used depends on theapplication. In general, authentication provides a higher degree ofaccuracy but a lower user experience level because of the extra step auser needs to take to enter an additional factor of his or her identity.The second factor of identity can take any of the common forms, such asa user name, user ID, password, unique employee ID, social securitynumber, email address, a variety of other biometric modalities, amongothers. In one embodiment of the present invention, the second factor ofidentity is the signature derived from the palm print image(s) of theindividual's second hand, with the individual signatures of each of bothpalm print images or sets of images of the individual utilized togetherfor authentication or identification.

It is important to note that in each case described above(authentication or identification), instead of matching a user signatureagainst a model within Database of User Models 135 located locallywithin Device 100, a signature generated by an image or set of images ofa user's palm taken at Device 100 could be matched against a model ormodels contained in a database located at either or both of RemoteServer 200 or one or more Remote Devices 300. In this case, the user ofDevice 100 would typically be seeking access to one or more resourcesresident at these remote platforms rather than a resource locatedlocally within Device 100. By way of example, in the case of unlocking,for example, a smartphone, processing could be done locally at thesmartphone/Device 100 whereas if authentication is being undertaken, forexample, in connection with a remote based application, some portion ofthe processing could be done at a Remote Server 200 with user models tobe matched against being stored possibly at Remote Server 200 as opposedto locally on the smartphone. Additionally, it should be apparent fromthe present teachings that user models, signatures and/or otherbiometric data can be synchronized between any of the AID Units 160,205, 305 to allow for local authentication or identification at any oneof Device 100, Remote Server 200, Remote Device 300 without said Device100, Remote Server 200 or Remote Device 300 having generated that usermodel, signature and/or other biometric data locally.

Returning now to FIG. 2, it can be seen that in a preferred embodimentof the present invention, at step (1), Device 100 is used to take apicture or series of pictures of the palm of the user to be identified(step (2)) with Camera 105 (step (3)). A flash component (step (4)) maybe embedded in Device 100 to provide necessary pre-processing of theimage, particularly as it relates to providing minimum sufficient lightfor region of interest detection, feature extraction, and signatureprocessing of the individual's palm image. Next, the palm region of theimage is masked by Region of Interest Detector 115 (step (5)) and fed toConversion Processor 120 (step (6)) to convert raw pixels into auniquely identifying user signature, Signature 125. The user signatureis a compact code that contains relevant identifying informationassociated with the user's palm print image and can be quickly andprecisely matched to a large database of user models such as Database ofUser Models 135 or a database at a remote platform (step (7)). Onebenefit of the derived user signature is that it makes it essentiallyimpossible to reconstruct a user's palm image from a database of usermodels. In step (8), AID Engine 130 compares the user signature from thepalm image or set of images with those in the database of user models toidentify or authenticate the user as applicable. The above referencedconversion and comparison functions could alternatively be processed ona remote resource or partially on a remote resource and partially onDevice 100.

Turning now to FIG. 3, it can be seen that in cases where authenticationor identification is being accomplished with respect to a remoteresource, communication between Device 100 and that remote resourcepreferably occurs over a secure connection as is known in the art. Thiscan involve one or more techniques as is known in the art to include,for example, strong encryption, public or private key encryption,digital certificates, and/or digital signatures among others.

Now that the system and primary methodologies of the present inventionhave been described, additional novel features, such as variousmethodologies for preventing spoofing in connection withauthentication/identification as well as a novel methodology forencoding and exchanging transaction information with remote resourceswill be discussed.

Spoof protection is an important aspect of this invention. It preventsadversaries, for example, from using a printed photograph of a palminstead of a real hand for authentication. One novel aspect of thepresent invention that is directed to spoof protection involvesdetecting and using the three dimensional characteristics of a humanhand in order to provide security against spoofing.

In one example of spoof detection, in order to distinguish between aphotograph and a real hand, the system of the present invention takes aseries of pictures in rapid sequence, with the camera flash being usedintermittently and at varying lengths of time. The pictures of a 3-Dobject (a real hand) taken with the flash will have certain highlightedregions and shadows created by the flash, whereas on positions of thehand in which a 2-D representation of the hand (for example, a printedphotograph of a palm or a palm image shown on the display screen ofanother mobile device) would not show such highlighted regions andshadows. This allows the system of the present invention to utilize acomparison of the highlighted regions and shadows on the hand createdbetween the flash and non-flash photos to distinguish between a printedphotograph and a real hand. In this way, an unauthorized party whohappens to have obtained a picture of an authorized user's palm cannotuse that picture to gain unauthorized access to local or remoteresources.

Further methods for detecting a real hand include 3-D modeling of thehand. In this case, the system of the present invention may prompt theuser to turn his or her hand while a series of multiple pictures aretaken. A true 3-D object will reveal different parts of the hand witheach successive image while a 2-D object will always show the exact samepart of the hand, just with varying degrees of distortion. This lets thesystem of the present invention distinguish between a printed photographand a real hand. Similarly, instead of rotating the hand, the user canbe prompted to close the hand to a first or open it from a first whilethe series of pictures is taken. Other methods of distinguishing a realhand from the photograph of a hand are also possible.

Another novel aspect of the present invention is a methodology in whichreplay attacks may be detected and prevented. In this case, an adversarymodifies a mobile device such that it sends one or a series ofpreviously recorded pictures from the real hand of a legitimate user tothe network for authentication or identification instead of sending theimages taken by the camera. It is assumed here that the adversary couldtake pictures of an authorized user's hand without the authorized userbeing aware or able to prevent this. If this is in fact a risk (e.g., acase where an authorized user is sleeping or unconscious), then it ispreferable for the system to be used in such a way that one or moreadditional identity factors such as a user ID or other form of dataindependent of the palm print image is required to authenticate a user.

To detect and defend against a replay attack, the system of the presentinvention issues a series of pictures and flashes at a variety ofintervals, i.e., it records a series of pictures, some with the flashturned off and others with the flash turned on. The specific picturesand flash on/off sequence can be chosen at random or according to apre-determined sequence and can change for each authentication oridentification request. The system of the present invention can easilydetect if an adversary uses a previously recorded series of picturesbecause the on/off pattern of the pictures and flashes will not matchthe one actually sent to the mobile device.

Another method to detect a replay attack involves storing all previouslyused images and comparing new images against that database. Because thepixel data underlying the images of two different palms can essentiallynever be exactly the same or substantially the same to a certaintolerance level, the system can detect when a previously taken image isused again. Other methods of detecting a replay attack are alsoconceivable.

Yet another novel aspect of the present invention is the ability toembed transaction information or other data within the timing of aseries of photographs and/or flash patterns. This timing pattern canfurther be used to encode information about the transaction itself. Acryptographic hash code can then be applied to this information. Thehash code makes the resulting code compact (short) and also preventsanybody who observes the flash pattern from deriving any informationabout the original content of the code. In one embodiment of the presentinvention, the timing of the sequence of images and/or flash patterns isutilized as part of an anti-spoofing mechanism to determine whether theimage sequence provided for authentication or identification matches theinformation from the transaction itself. A specific implementation mayinclude:

1. A low resolution video of the palm area with the flashing pattern.

2. One or several high resolution still images of the palm area.

3. Computer vision technology to ensure the high resolution image(s) arefrom the same object as the ones in the video.

Based on the above description of the system and methodologies of thepresent invention, it can be understood that various applications arepossible. Examples include, without limitation, access to one or moredevices, access to one or more applications resident on those devices orlocated remotely on a server or on other remote devices, a variety oftransactional applications (such as electoral voting, distribution ofstate welfare, financial payments), and any other type of transactionrequiring validation of user identity.

In summary, in exemplary embodiments, the present invention providescomputer systems (including a combination of software running onsuitable hardware), computer-implemented methods, and devices forauthentication or identification of an individual which includes usingan image or a set of images of an individual's palm through a processinvolving the following steps: (1) detecting the palm area using localclassifiers; (2) extracting features from the region(s) of interest; and(3) computing the matching score against user models stored in adatabase, which can be augmented dynamically through a learning process.Thus, the invention includes a system for providing selective access toresources available in connection with a device comprising softwareexecuted on suitable computer hardware, in which the system comprises:(a) at least one camera associated with said device, said camera beingcapable of taking at least one photograph of a human palm print; (b) adetector module using local classifiers to locate and segment the regionof interest of the palm without physical contact; (c) a conversionprocessor which converts raw pixel data associated with said region ofinterest of a human palm print into a unique signature associated withsaid palm print; and (d) an authentication and identification engine,said authentication and identification engine determining whether accessto one or more of said resources should be granted based upon saidunique signature and at least one database containing a plurality ofuser models. The system may further comprise a learning processor thatimproves the user models with new data, wherein the learning processorselectively includes said palm print image to augment said database andsaid authentication and identification engine. In embodiments, thedevice is a mobile device, while in other embodiments, the device is adesktop device or a stationary embedded device. The system can include aflash component that selectively activates at the time of image captureto provide minimum sufficient light for region of interest detection,feature extraction, and signature processing of the human's palm image.In embodiments, the conversion processor of the system uses descriptorsextracted from patches over the region of interest. The descriptors canbe encoded into high dimensional sparse vectors, which can be pooledinto at least one group.

The system of the invention can have, as part of the method implementedwithin the system, the feature of computing a signature from a Bag ofFeatures or multiple Bags of Features representations. In addition, thedetector module of the system can use Haar Wavelets and AdaBoostalgorithms. In various embodiments, the system includes a detectormodule that uses support vector machines or a convolutional neuralnetwork. The user module of the system can be a statistical modelcomputed from a collection of a human's palm images. Likewise, the usermodel can be a Gaussian density model or a mixture of Gaussians densitymodel.

The system of the invention can be configured such that at least one ofthe resources is remote from the device. Alternatively, at least one ofthe resources can be resident on the device. In some embodiments, atleast one of the resources is an application or a database.

In embodiments of the system of the invention, the individual signaturesof each of both palm print images of a human, if available, are utilizedtogether for authentication or identification of the human.

In some embodiments of the system of the invention, palm printauthentication or identification is combined with other modalities, suchas one or more of the following: passcodes, security questions,fingerprint recognition, facial recognition, iris recognition, writtensignature recognition, and other biometric and non-biometric modalities.

The system of the invention can be implemented in a way such that anapplication selectively permits one or more users to conduct one or moretransactions.

The system of the invention can also include the use of a sequence offlash and non-flash images of the human's palm, which can be used, amongother things, as part of an anti-spoofing mechanism to determine whetherthe presented hand is a 3-D object or a 2-D representation of a hand.Furthermore, the system of the invention can be implemented in such away that image data captured during movement of the human's palm areutilized as part of an anti-spoofing mechanism to determine whether thepresented hand is a 3-D object or a 2-D representation of a hand. Insome embodiments, the sequence of flash and non-flash images of thehuman's palm as well as the time interval(s) between successive imagesare utilized as part of an anti-spoofing mechanism to determine whetheran adversary is attempting to utilize a previously-recorded sequence ofimages for authentication or identification.

In some embodiments of the invention, all of a human's previously usedimages are stored, such as in a database resident on a computing device,for comparison against new images as part of an anti-spoofing mechanismto determine whether an adversary is attempting to utilizepreviously-recorded images for authentication or identification. And yetfurther, in certain embodiments, the system of the invention isimplemented such that transaction information or other data is embeddedwithin the timing of a sequence of images and/or flash patterns as partof an anti-spoofing mechanism to determine whether the image sequenceprovided for authentication or identification matches the informationfrom the transaction itself.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shownand described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that,based upon the teachings herein, changes and modifications may be madewithout departing from this invention and its broader aspects.

REFERENCES CITED

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1. A system for providing selective access to resources available inconnection with a device comprising software executed on suitablecomputer hardware, said system comprising: (a) at least one cameraassociated with said device, said camera being capable of taking atleast one photograph of a human palm print; (b) a detector module usinglocal classifiers to locate and segment the region of interest of thepalm without physical contact; (c) a conversion processor which convertsraw pixel data associated with said region of interest of a human palmprint into a unique signature associated with said palm print; and (d)an authentication and identification engine, said authentication andidentification engine determining whether access to one or more of saidresources should be granted based upon said unique signature and atleast one database containing a plurality of user models.
 2. The systemof claim 1, further comprising a learning processor that improves theuser models with new data, wherein the learning processor selectivelyincludes said palm print image to augment said database and saidauthentication and identification engine.
 3. The system of claim 1,wherein said device is a mobile device, a desktop device, or astationary embedded device.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein saiddevice includes a flash component that selectively activates at the timeof image capture to provide minimum sufficient light for region ofinterest detection, feature extraction, and signature processing of thehuman's palm image.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the conversionprocessor uses descriptors extracted from patches over the region ofinterest.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the descriptors are encodedinto high dimensional sparse vectors and wherein the sparse vectors arepooled into at least one group.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein thesignature is computed from a Bag of Features or multiple Bags ofFeatures representations.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the detectormodule uses Haar Wavelets and AdaBoost algorithms.
 9. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the detector module uses support vector machines, aconvolutional neural network, or both.
 10. The system of claim 1,wherein the user model is a statistical model computed from a collectionof a human's palm images.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein the usermodel is a Gaussian density model or a mixture of Gaussians densitymodel.
 12. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the resourcesis remote from the device or resident on the device.
 13. The system ofclaim 1, wherein said at least one of the resources is an application ora database.
 14. The system of claim 1, wherein the individual signaturesof each of both palm print images of a human, if available, are utilizedtogether for authentication or identification of the human.
 15. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein palm print authentication or identificationis combined with other modalities.
 16. The system of claim 15, whereinthe other modalities include one or more of the following: passcodes,security questions, fingerprint recognition, facial recognition, irisrecognition, written signature recognition, and other biometric andnon-biometric modalities.
 17. The system of claim 1, wherein anapplication selectively permits one or more users to conduct one or moretransactions.
 18. The system of claim 1, wherein a sequence of flash andnon-flash images of the human's palm are utilized as part of ananti-spoofing mechanism to determine whether the presented hand is a 3-Dobject or a 2-D representation of a hand.
 19. The system of claim 1,wherein image data captured during movement of the human's palm areutilized as part of an anti-spoofing mechanism to determine whether thepresented hand is a 3-D object or a 2-D representation of a hand. 20.The system of claim 1, wherein the sequence of flash and non-flashimages of the human's palm as well as the time interval(s) betweensuccessive images are utilized as part of an anti-spoofing mechanism todetermine whether an adversary is attempting to utilize apreviously-recorded sequence of images for authentication oridentification.
 21. The system of claim 1, wherein all of a human'spreviously used images are stored for comparison against new images aspart of an anti-spoofing mechanism to determine whether an adversary isattempting to utilize previously-recorded images for authentication oridentification.
 22. The system of claim 1, wherein transactioninformation or other data is embedded within the timing of a sequence ofimages and/or flash patterns as part of an anti-spoofing mechanism todetermine whether the image sequence provided for authentication oridentification matches the information from the transaction itself.